SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The way some players saw it, USC didn't merely defeat Notre Dame on Saturday night; the Trojans took the fight out of the Fighting Irish.

As the clock wound down in front of a packed house at Notre Dame Stadium, with USC about to put the finishing touches on a 31-17 upset victory, Irish coach Brian Kelly declined to call any timeouts. In a sea of Notre Dame navy, gold and green, the Trojans viewed that as a white flag.

"They just quit," USC senior linebacker Chris Galippo said. "That's what Notre Dame football is all about. They're not anything like 'SC."

Said senior tailback Marc Tyler: "We beat them down. We wore them out. They didn't want to play anymore."

It was ironic that some Trojans were firing verbal shots at the Irish after the game, because the single biggest reason USC (6-1) won was its singular focus on football.

Coach Lane Kiffin had his players convinced that Notre Dame (4-3) was making Saturday night's game its "Super Bowl." There was evidence to support that claim: The Irish were playing their first night-time home game since 1990; they had scheduled a bye the previous week; and they were playing host to more than 20 recruits on official visits.

So Kiffin's message to his players was this: "It's not about the hype, it's about the preparation."

With 80,795 fans roaring and whipping towels in the autumn air, USC came out and executed. The Trojans played a nearly flawless first quarter and built a 17-point lead deep into the second. Then things got interesting.

After Andre Heidari's field goal with 3:34 left in the first half made it 17-0, Notre Dame's George Atkinson III returned the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. The Irish added a field goal before the end of the half, and they were 1 yard away from possibly tying the score late in the third quarter.

Backup quarterback Dayne Crist, in for the injured Tommy Rees, lined up under center on third-and-goal, presumably to execute a sneak. But Crist fumbled the snap. The ball bounded to the 20-yard line, where USC safety Jawanza Starling picked it up. Eighty yards later, USC had a 24-10 advantage.

"It just felt surreal," Starling said. "Everything slowed down."

Several players tried to either fall on the ball or grab it. Starling waited for, and finally got, what he called "the perfect bounce."

"Scoop and score," he said. "Everything we do in practice."

Notre Dame responded with a touchdown, making the score 24-17 with 14:07 left. After Heidari, who sprained his ankle on Atkinson's kickoff return, missed a field goal, the Irish got the ball back with 9:13 to play and a chance to tie.

On second-and-3 from the Notre Dame 27, Rees, who had returned to the game on the previous Irish possession, threw a swing pass to tailback Cierre Wood. The pass missed – and the officials determined it wasn't a pass. An alert Galippo fell on the lateral, setting USC up at the 18. Three plays later, Matt Barkley connected with Robert Woods for a 14-yard touchdown to make it 31-17 with 7:47 left.

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